LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 251, 24 January 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Waiapu arrived from Auckland via coast on Tuesday morning, bringing—Messrs Lucas and Germain. The following is a list of her cargo: 10 cases acid, Page; 25 cases ale and stout, Kennedy; 6 oases spirits, Orr ; 6 cases vinegar, Graham Pitt and Bennett: 5946 feet timber, Harding; 51,290 feet timber, Skeet; 51 mats sugar, 20 sacks coal, 2 cases baking powder, 6 cases spirits, order.

Sib,—Ae a lover of aquatic sports, and one directly interested in their furtherance, I should like to know what has become of the proposed Regatta Club, Meetings were called, a committee appointed, the town canvassed and, as I have been informed, money, if not actually handed over, promised. Notwithstanding this, and the fact also that owners of boats Have, already been getting them in order, the regatta seems to be as much a thing of the future as it was before being mooted. I would like some of the more prominent committeemen to make explanation; if not, I shall possibly have mors to say as to what appears to me to be culpable dilatorinese.—l am, etc., Aquatic. The barque Loohnagar completed loading on Monday afternoon, and cleared at the Customs on the following day for London. She has had exceptionally fine weather during her short stay in port, and has in consequence received a quick despatch. At 5 o’clock yesterday morning anchor was' weighed and ail sail set, but just as the vessel was getting a good ofiing the wind changed lound to a stiff southerly breeze which caused the barque to again come to an anchorage. The Lochnagar will probably sail at an early hour this morning. She takes one passenger, E. Pickard, and the following cargo: 14 casks tallow, (£9B) Orr; 5?0 bales greasy wool, (£5,853 13s 2d) Common Shelton and Cq. ; 756 bales greasy wool, (£9961) 40 bales scoured wool, (£534) L and M Coy; 822 bales greasy wool, (£12,490), 6 bales washed wool, (£80), 1 kangaroo dog, (£l5) Graham Pitt and Bennett. Total value £28,981 13s 2d, A meeting of the Charitable Aid Board was held yesterday afternoon, Messrs Lucas (chairman), Dunlop, Stubbs, Tucker, and Coleman being present. The Secretary stated there were Ifi oases of relief existing, seven locally and Six in outside institutions, while five oases had been discontinued. The Hawke’s Bay Board wrote stating that unless the payment of 5s per week on aeoount of Galbraith was continued he (Galbraith) would be sent back to Gisborne, It was agreed to continue the payment. With regard to a claim from the Bay of Plenty Board, it was decided to get en opinion from Messrs Finn and Chriep on the matter. It was decided that in future the Board should meet at. 8.30 p.m. on the second Wednesday in each month, and that a record of persons receiving relief should be kept for the inspection of ratepayers. It was proposed by Captain Tucker and carried that, “ While thanking the ladies of the Benevolent Society for past aid, the Board trusts that they will continue to assist, and that they will do it the favor of reporting to the Secretary any case f in which assistance has been given Wilhin / ene week bl gifibj tee »»«!*>" I

The Whataupoko Road Board received the following tenders on Tuesday for the formation and gravelling of Stout street: — D Malone, £394 7s broken metal; J Mclntosh, £293 (Whatanpoko gravel), 5s 6d per yard (rnetalj; P McLoughlin, £269 12s 8d (Whataupoko gravel) ; Doleman and Hicks, £31413s 4d (Kaiti gravel), £27210s (Whataupoko gravel); A J O’Neil, £223 la (Whataupoko gravel). Messrs Doleman and Hicks’ tender was accepted for Kaiti gravel. The quantity to be reduced to 18 yards per chain, and the price to £269 4s 2d. On the 27th ult. four boys were brought before the Dunedin Police Court charged with robbery from a dwelling, and two of them being under 12-years of age were summarily dealt with and sentenced to six strokes with a birch rod. The two elder boys, who were shown to be the ringleaders in the theft, were committed to take their trial. Last week their case duly came before the higher court, with the result that the Grand Jury threw out the bill against them, and they Were discharged without a stain on their characters, while the minor offenders received chastisement.

At a recent meeting of an Ashburton local body, a difference of opinion between two members led to high words, and during a heated discussion one let fall an expression that the other evidently accepted as an intimation of his willingness to settle the matter in dispute by an appeal to arms. At any rate during an adjournment which took place shortly afterwards, this gentleman drew up a formal challenge to fight a duel, the weapons to be used to be pistols and the distance twenty paces, the challenge being emphasized by the following polite missive which accompanied it“ If you do not accept this challenge, I shall put you down to what I always considered you—as no gentleman and a coward.’’ The Ashburton public are awaiting with eager interest the news of the preliminaries having been settled. Amateur sportsmen should be careful when they go practising with the “ deadly tube ” that they do not interfeie with the liberty of other British subjects. Complaints have reached us on several occasions ot the annoyance that is caused by sportsmen who go down the beach or elsewhere and indulge in the preparatory exeroiee of shooting sparrows and skylarks, but we do not like to say anything on these delicate matters, because a nervous individual is generally inclined to assume that if the sbootist wants to hit any given object he must point his gun in almost the opposition direction—which his vanity will not permit him to do, the consequence being that the sparrows are overjoyed and the nervous individual has his or her nerves still further unstrung. The other day, however, some experts at the game were guilty of a foolish and dangerous action, They were practising for the pigeon match, their practice ground being just above Mr DeLautour’s place, and ths guns covering a portion of the Taruheru river. One boat that was going up received a peppering of tha spent lead, and the occupants might have been seriously injured had they not pulled the boat out ot the way with all possible expedition. This sort ot thing is beyond a joke, but it was no doubt the result of thoughtlessness which wo hops will not occur in like form again.

It was well said by Sir 0. Gavin Duffy that anyone considering Irish matters must learn to “ discriminate." You must first of all call to mind who it is that is offending against the law, and then give your opinion. It the offender happens to be an Irishman he must bo at once punished, and that severely —all the more so if he happens to be a “ Papist.” When it is not an Irishman who offends, and not a “ Papist," then his fault must be looked over, and no punishment meted out. We have an instance in the cable news to day. For an attack on the Parnell Commission, Mr O'Brien Is to be punished. A Mr Brodrlck, for comparing a braver and better man than himself to that devil incarnate, the Whitechapel murderer, is allowed to get off through making an empty apology, and the judge thanked him for his '* courtesy." And this is even handed justice 1 And then Ignorant prejudiced antiIrishmen wonder why Irishmen object to English rule I—Waipawa Mail. “ The proceedings of the Parnell Commission,” says a London correspondent, "continue to fill acres of space in the London and provincial press ; but it would be a great mistake to fancy that this a reliable index to the amount of public interest that is taken in the progress of the case. In journalistic phraseology, the papers regard the Commission as a * big thing,’ and vie with each other in the lengths of their reports; but the interest of the public visibly declined when it was found that the Times was in no hurry to come to the kernel of the whole affair—that is, whether Mr Parnell did or did net sign the sanguinary letters that have been imputed to him. What people are at a loss to know is why the judges tolerate all this wearisome relating of old outrages without the slightest attempt to convict the persons charged—Mr Parnell and his colleagues—with any participation in them, either before or after the fact. At the present rate the proceedings look like lasting for months whereas the whole business could easily have been disposed of in a week, it the issue had been confined to the one question of supreme importance—Were the compromising letters attributed to Mr Parnell by the Times genuine or forged? The fact that the Times is fighting shy of proof, and hinting that the letters with which it originally made such a prodigious sensation are, after all, only ‘ secondary evidence,’ is causing a good many people to shrug their shoulders and smilingly confess that 1 the Thunderer has been had for once.' ”